geocentric provability: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Marines T-shirt a no-no at Illinois school

A father wants an Illinois school district to rethink its dress code after his son was threatened with suspension if he did not remove his U.S. Marines T-shirt.

According to FoxNews.com, Daniel McIntyre, 44, said his 14-year-old son was told by his teacher Karen Deverell during reading class at Genoa-Kingston Middle School on Monday that his shirt violated the dress code because it shows two interlocking guns. He was then asked to wear the shirt inside out or face possible suspension.

?My son is very proud of the Marines and, in fact, of all the services,? McIntyre said. ?So he wears it with pride. There are two rifles crossed underneath the word ?Marines? on the shirt, but to me that should be overlooked. It?s more about the Marines instead of the rifles.?

McIntyre said his son had worn the shirt plenty of times to school. Deverell did not inform school officials of the incident, but when asked about school dress policy, Genoa-Kingston Superintendent Joe Burgess said the T-shirt was not a violation. He added that the school dress policy simply requires kids to dress in a ?neat, clean and well-fitting manner,? and avoid wearing gang symbols or clothing that promotes ?violent behavior.? The code does not specifically ban images of guns.

A statement obtained by FoxNews.com reads in part, ?The administration and school handbook agree that this shirt is not a violation of the dress code. We also take school safety very earnestly and it needs to be recognized that is a topic that we also take very seriously and support our students and staff in providing a safe environment to learn, teach and work in on a daily basis.?

Meanwhile, McIntyre is asking that the code be updated. ?This is not right. This policy that they have in place can obviously be loosely interpreted, so they need to change it.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/father-asks-school-rethink-dress-code-son-told-180721078.html

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Pippa Middleton to Pen Cooking Column For UK Magazine

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/pippa-middleton-to-pen-cooking-column-for-uk-magazine/

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Today on New Scientist: 26 February 2013

Giant laser creates an artificial star to clear the sky

The Very Large Telescope's new laser looks like something off the Death Star, but its powerful beam is used for the peaceful exploration of the galaxy

Russian meteor traced to Apollo asteroid family

The bounty of footage from dashboard-mounted cameras helped astronomers quickly calculate the orbit of the meteor and trace it to its home turf

Curiosity's spills add thrills to the Mars life hunts

An accidental chemical leak on board NASA's newest Martian rover has added another twist in the decades-long search for life on the Red Planet

Multilingual dictionary keeps humans in the loop

A new online dictionary launched this week uses concepts instead of words to avoid the typical garble of machine translation

Vulcan and Cerberus win popular Pluto moon-naming vote

A public vote to help name Pluto's two newest moons received a boost from William Shatner - but the International Astronomical Union has the final say

China takes steps to clean up 'cancer villages'

Having acknowledged the issue of cancer clusters around polluted water, the Chinese government is taking its first steps to control dangerous chemicals

Happy, snappy tweets gain the most Twitter followers

An analysis of half a million posts on Twitter has come up with some simple rules to boost your popularity on the site

Android smartphone to control satellite in orbit

A bold attempt to show that consumer electronics can cope with space radiation has lifted off - a satellite-controlling Google smartphone is now in orbit

The man who's crashing the techno-hype party

Evgeny Morozov does a good job of dispelling "big data" hype in To Save Everything, Click Here, but fails to explore the way we shape the tech we use

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/28fc17bf/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A130C0A20Ctoday0Eon0Enew0Escientist0E260Efeb0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Barnes & Noble Founder Looking To Buy Retail Business Back ...

(bclinesmith)

Just as Best Buy founder Richard Schulze nears the deadline to present his bid to buy the company back from shareholders comes news that the chairman of Barnes & Noble has similar plans for the company he started 40 years ago.

Multiple news outlets are reporting that B&N founder Leonard Riggio has told the bookstore?s board that he wants to take back the retail side of the company ? both bricks-and-mortar stores and the company?s online outlets ? but not the Nook Media division that has struggled to keep pace with Amazon and Apple.

Like Schulze?s relationship with Best Buy, Riggio already owns a large stake (around 30%) of the company, making him the largest stakeholder in the business.

DealBook reports that the company has already created special board committee of three directors to review Riggio?s proposal.

Riggio?s proposal was revealed earlier today in a regulatory filing by the bookstore chain.

While the company?s Nook business, which recently benefited from investments by Microsoft and the Penguin Group, has been unable to catch up to Amazon?s Kindle e-reader or Apple?s iPad tablet, the bricks-and-mortar stores have continued to make a profit.

The company recently confirmed its long-term goals of closing around one-third of its retail locations over the next 10 years, though B&N claims that fewer than 20 of its stores are failing to make a profit.

Meanwhile, recent reports seem to indicate that the thinning of B&N and the closing of chains like Borders are resulting in a resurgence of independent bookstores.

Barnes & Noble Chairman to Bid for Chain?s Retail Business [DealBook]
Barnes?s Chairman Mulls Store Buyout [WSJ.com]

Tell a friend:

Source: http://consumerist.com/2013/02/25/barnes-noble-founder-looking-to-buy-retail-business-back/

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Jennifer Lawrence, Please Don't Date Jack Nicholson!

Jennifer Lawrence got a huge shock last night when screen legend Jack Nicholson interrupted an interview to compliment her work. We weren't shocked that the 75-year-old ladies man hit on her -- but we were a little surprised when she flirted back!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/jennifer-lawrence-gets-interview-bombed-jack-nicholson/1-a-523805?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ajennifer-lawrence-gets-interview-bombed-jack-nicholson-523805

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Ikea's Swedish meatballs latest victim of horsemeat scandal

STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Swedish furniture giant Ikea was drawn into Europe's widening food labeling scandal Monday as authorities said they had detected horse meat in frozen meatballs labeled as beef and pork and sold in 13 countries across the continent.

The Czech State Veterinary Administration said that horse meat was found in one-kilogram (2.2 pound) packs of frozen meatballs made in Sweden and shipped to the Czech Republic for sale in Ikea stores there. A total of 760 kilograms (1,675 pounds) of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves.

Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said meatballs from the same batch had gone out to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. Magnusson said meatballs from that batch were taken off the shelves in Ikea stores in all those countries. Other shipments of meatballs were not affected, including to the U.S., even though they all come from the same Swedish supplier, Magnusson said.

"Our global recommendation is to not recall or stop selling meatballs," she said.

However, the company's Swedish branch announced on its Facebook page that it won't sell or serve any meatballs at its stores in Sweden out of concern for "potential worries among our customers."

Magnusson said Ikea saw no reason to extend that guidance globally. She said Ikea was conducting its own tests of the affected batch "to validate" the Czech results. She also said that two weeks ago Ikea tested a range of frozen food products, including meatballs, and found no traces of horse meat.

"But, of course, we take the tests that Czech authorities have done very seriously," Magnusson said. "We don't tolerate any other ingredients than those on the label."

Ikea's trademark blue-and-yellow stores typically feature a restaurant that serves traditional Swedish food, including meatballs served with boiled or mashed potatoes, gravy and lingonberry jam. Meatballs ? "Kottbullar" in Swedish ? are also available in the frozen foods section.

Magnusson said all of the meatballs are supplied by Gunnar Dafgard AB, a family-owned frozen foods company in southwestern Sweden. Calls to the company were not immediately returned.

European Union officials were meeting Monday to discuss tougher food labeling rules after the discovery of horse meat in a range of frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagna that were supposed to contain beef or pork.

The Czech authority also announced Monday that it found horse meat in beef burgers imported from Poland during random tests of food products.

Spanish authorities, meanwhile, announced that traces of horse meat were found in a beef cannelloni product by one of the brands of Nestle, a Switzerland-based food giant. The Agriculture Ministry said it was a case of fraudulent labeling but represented no health threat.

In a statement on its website, Nestle Spain said that after carrying out tests on meat supplied to its factories in Spain it was withdrawing six "La Cocinera" products and one "Buitoni" product from store shelves.

It said it was taking the action after the traces of horse meat were found in beef bought from a supplier in central Spain. Nestle said it was taking legal action against the company, adding that the products would be replaced by ones with 100 percent beef.

Some EU member states are pressing for tougher labeling rules to regain consumer confidence.

The 27-nation bloc must agree on binding origin disclosures for food product ingredients, starting with a better labeling of meat products, German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said.

"Consumers have every right to the greatest-possible transparency," she insisted.

Austria backs the German initiative; but others like Ireland say existing rules are sufficient although Europe-wide controls must be strengthened to address the problem of fraudulent labeling.

The scandal has created a split between nations like Britain which see further rules as a protectionist hindrance of free trade under the bloc's single market, and those calling for tougher regulation.

Processed food products ? a business segment with traditionally low margins that often leads producers to hunt for the cheapest suppliers ? often contain ingredients from multiple suppliers in different countries, who themselves at times subcontract production to others, making it hard to monitor every link in the production chain.

Standardized DNA checks with meat suppliers and more stringent labeling rules will add costs that producers will most likely hand down to consumers, making food more expensive.

The scandal began in Ireland in mid-January when the country announced the results of its first-ever DNA tests on beef products. It tested frozen beef burgers taken from store shelves and found that more than a third of brands at five supermarkets contained at least a trace of horse. The sample of one brand sold by British supermarket kingpin Tesco was more than a quarter horse.

Such discoveries have spread like wildfire across Europe as governments, supermarkets, meat traders and processors began their own DNA testing of products labeled beef and have been forced to withdraw tens of millions of products from store shelves.

More than a dozen nations have detected horse flesh in processed products such as factory-made burger patties, lasagnas, meat pies and meat-filled pastas. The investigations have been complicated by elaborate supply chains involving multiple cross-border middlemen.

___

Associated Press writers Juergen Baetz in Brussels, Karel Janicek in Prague and Ciaran Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/horse-meat-found-ikeas-swedish-meatballs-112154426--finance.html

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Asus Padfone Hands On: A Sleek Two-For-One Device That Makes You Pay for Both

If it were sold without its tablet dock, you might give the Padfone phone a second look all on its own. It's really pretty, after using it for a few minutes, it's just as powerful and smooth as any other flagship Android phone coming out, like the Optimus G Pro or the HTC One. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ae1aERPOKS0/asus-padfone-hands-on-a-sleek-two+for+one-device-that-makes-you-pay-for-both

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Pope accepts resignation of top British cleric

Playing off his?pre-Oscars prediction?that everyone would hate him at the Oscars, Seth MacFarlane spent the first 19 minutes of the Academy Awards on Sunday making sure everyone would, in fact, hate him.?After some real stinkers, the main conceit was William Shatner descending on a screen as Captain Kirk, from the future, to tell MacFarlane to do a better job of hosting, in a kind of alternate-reality bit that turned pretty sordid?and pretty fast. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-accepts-resignation-top-british-cleric-114323778.html

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FBI part of Australia SuperDae home raid concerning Microsoft corporate espionage

A Perth, Western Australia teenager known online as ?SuperDae? recently had his family?s home raided by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.? The raid was over intelligence the young man, who is purportedly a hacker, had somehow acquired on the upcoming Xbox gaming system.? The FBI working with the Western Australia police seized many of the young man?s possessions, which included all of his computer equipment.? He is being accused of international corporate espionage.?

This raid came many months after the teen revealed information regarding the upcoming Xbox via his highly popular Twitter account.? Dylan, whose last name was withheld over privacy and age, is a highly popular social media user and has nearly 30 thousand followers on his Twitter account.? Dylan also posted online a new development kit for the ?Durango?, which is what the new Xbox design will be called.

The development kit is what companies receive from a video game maker to help them create and develop new games for their system.? Because of Dylan?s leak, it caused a lot of chatter in cyberspace with designers and other developers since this type of information is usually kept very secret.

Dylan told The West Australian press that the sudden raid was a highly charged and frightening experience to go through for his entire family.? He said when he heard the knock, the FBI were literally about to ram the door open.? The FBI also insinuated to him that he may very well be extradited to the U.S. depending on the outcome of the investigation.

The West Australian further confirmed that the raid did occur through the local WA police department.? When asked for more information regarding the FBI?s role in the ordeal, they refused comment, but did say that their tech crime investigation unit was involved in a type of multi-jurisdictional investigation into the alleged corporate espionage.

Dylan, a.k.a. SuperDae, considers himself to be a security consultant for any type of flaws found in programs or online sites.? He said that he only published the intelligence over the Durango Xbox to show that it was possible to do so.?? He claims that he was in contact with Microsoft over the flaws in their security, but he said he ceased communication when he felt they were only using him without any form of reimbursement or thanks.

It isn?t known at this time if Dylan will be extradited to the U.S. or if the espionage case will begin to grow.? His case has just begun to make the rounds on Twitter and the hash tag #FreeSuperDaE has also begun trending with the hacker community.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vr-zone/~3/B1IqgytQbS0/19058.html

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Microsoft says small number of its computers hacked

Staff , Reuters ? ? ? 3 hrs.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Friday a small number of its computers, including some in its Mac software business unit, were infected with malware, but there was no evidence of customer data being affected and it is continuing its investigation.

The world's largest software company said the security intrusion was "similar" to recent ones reported by Apple Inc and Facebook Inc.

The incident, reported on one of the company's public blogs happened "recently", but Microsoft said it chose not to make any statement publicly while it gathered information about the attack.

"This type of cyberattack is no surprise to Microsoft and other companies that must grapple with determined and persistent adversaries," said Matt Thomlinson, general manager of Trustworthy Computing Security at Microsoft, in the company's blog post.

Over the past week or so, both Apple and Facebook said computers used by employees were attacked after visiting a software developer website infected with malicious software.

The attacks come at a time of broader concern about computer security.

Newspaper websites, including those of The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, have been infiltrated recently. Earlier this month U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order seeking better protection of the country's critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill and Andrew Hay)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/microsoft-says-small-number-its-computers-hacked-1C8513890

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Google hopes for reinforcements in social network battle

Google is promising businesses greater returns on advertising if they sign up to its social network, in a fresh bid to take on rivals Facebook and Twitter.

The internet search giant has been emailing advertisers boasting that businesses with Google+ pages see a 5-10 per cent rise in click-throughs when linked with its AdWord campaigns. These display adverts on Google when users search for specific words.

Google also features businesses' Google+ pages prominently on the right hand side of search results. These also show recent posts on the page and the number of people who have given a "+1" ? the equivalent of Facebook's "like" button ? to those brands.

Insiders suspect the push by executive chairman Eric Schmidt to sign up companies to the social network, launched in November 2011, is a response to innovations from Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter last week introduced a system allowing businesses to tailor advertising campaigns on the microblogging site and Facebook last month unveiled Graph Search, a feature allowing users to search all the connections across the site.

Having more businesses on Google+ could strengthen the company's commercial clout as it would allow it to build up more detailed pictures of the brands and businesses users like through the +1 feature.

But one advertiser accused Google of "hacking its own system" to ensure the social network's success. When users search on the site, those brands or businesses on the social network are given greater presence, raising questions over whether Google is abusing its power.

It sparked a similar controversy last September when it launched its own car insurance comparison site. Google is also talking to music labels about launching a streaming service, so it is less reliant on advertising.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/266/f/3511/s/28e2fbb3/l/0L0Sindependent0O0Cnews0Cbusiness0Cnews0Cgoogle0Ehopes0Efor0Ereinforcements0Ein0Esocial0Enetwork0Ebattle0E850A80A230Bhtml/story01.htm

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6 tanks at Hanford nuclear site in Wash. leaking

FILE -- In this March 23, 2004 file photo, workers at the tank farms on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., measure for radiation and the presence of toxic vapors. Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids. Inslee called the latest news "disturbing." (AP Photo/Jackie Johnston, File)

FILE - In this July 14, 2010 photo, workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation work around a a tank farm where highly radioactive waste is stored underground near Richland, Wash. Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids. Inslee called the latest news "disturbing." (AP Photo/Shannon Dininny, File)

FILE -- In this Feb. 19, 2013 file photo, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., right, tours a facility to treat contaminated groundwater with Energy Department manager Matt McCormick on the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Wash. The facility is a key to cleaning up the highly contaminated site. Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids. Inslee called the latest news "disturbing." (AP Photo/Shannon Dininny, File)

FILE -- This photo provided by the U.S. Dept. of Energy, shows the construction of a "tank farm" to store nuclear waste in 1944 on the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Wash. It is one of collection of photos documenting life in and around the reservation from 1943-1967. Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids. Inslee called the latest news "disturbing." (AP Photo/U.S. Department of Energy, File)

FILE -- In this Sept. 18, 2012 file photo, then-Gov. Chris Gregoire makes her way down a set of stairs at the Hanford Vitrification Plant in Richland, Wash. Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids. Inslee called the latest news "disturbing." (AP Photo/The Tri-City Herald, Richard Dickin, File) LOCAL TV OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT KONA

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) ? Six underground tanks that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, federal and state officials said Friday, prompting calls for an investigation from a key senator.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the leaking material poses no immediate risk to public safety or the environment because it would take a while ? perhaps years ? to reach groundwater.

But the leaking tanks raise new concerns about delays for emptying them and strike another blow to federal efforts to clean up south-central Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where successes often are overshadowed by delays, budget overruns and technological challenges.

Department of Energy spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler said there was no immediate health risk and said federal officials would work with Washington state to address the matter.

Regardless, Tom Towslee, a spokesman for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the senator will be asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate Hanford's tank monitoring and maintenance program.

Wyden is the new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

State officials just last week announced that one of Hanford's 177 underground tanks was leaking 150 to 300 gallons a year, posing a risk to groundwater and rivers. So far, nearby monitoring wells haven't detected higher radioactivity levels.

Inslee traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to discuss the problem with federal officials. He said Friday that he learned in meetings that six tanks are leaking waste.

"We received very disturbing news today," the governor said. "I think that we are going to have a course of new action and that will be vigorously pursued in the next several weeks."

The federal government built the Hanford facility at the height of World War II as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. The remote site produced plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, and continued supporting the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal for years.

Today, it is the most contaminated nuclear site in the country, still surrounded by sagebrush but with Washington's Tri-Cities of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco several miles downriver.

Hanford's tanks hold some 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste ? enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools ? and many of those tanks are known to have leaked in the past. An estimated 1 million gallons of radioactive liquid already leaked there.

The tanks also are long past their intended 20-year life span ? raising concerns that even more tanks could be leaking ? though they were believed to have been stabilized in 2005.

Inslee said the falling waste levels in the six tanks were missed because only a narrow band of measurements was evaluated, rather than a wider band that would have shown the levels changing over time.

"It's like if you're trying to determine if climate change is happening, only looking at the data for today," he said. "Perhaps human error, the protocol did not call for it. But that's not the most important thing at the moment. The important thing now is to find and address the leakers."

There are legal, moral and ethical considerations to cleaning up the Hanford site at the national level, Inslee said, adding that he will continue to insist that the Energy Department completely clean up the site.

He also stressed the state would impose a "zero-tolerance" policy on radioactive waste leaking into the soil.

Cleanup is expected to last decades and cost billions of dollars.

The federal government already spends $2 billion each year on Hanford cleanup ? one-third of its entire budget for nuclear cleanup nationally. The Energy Department has said it expects funding levels to remain the same for the foreseeable future, but a new Energy Department report released this week includes annual budgets of as much as $3.5 billion during some years of the cleanup effort.

Much of that money goes toward construction of a plant to convert the underground waste into glasslike logs for safe, secure storage. The plant, last estimated at more than $12.3 billion, is billions of dollars over budget and behind schedule. It isn't expected to being operating until at least 2019.

Given those delays, the federal government will have to show that there is adequate storage for the waste in the meantime, Inslee said.

"We are not convinced of this," he said. "There will be a robust exchange of information in the coming weeks to get to the bottom of this."

Inslee and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, both Democrats, have championed building additional tanks to ensure safe storage of the waste until the plant is completed.

Wyden, who toured the site earlier this week, said he shares their concerns about the integrity of the tanks but that he wants more scientific information to determine it's the correct way to spend scarce money.

Wyden noted the nation's most contaminated nuclear site ? and the challenges associated with ridding it of its toxic legacy ? will be a subject of upcoming hearings and a higher priority in Washington, D.C.

Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group, said Friday it's disappointing that the Energy Department is not further along on the waste treatment plant and that there aren't new tanks to transfer waste into.

"None of these tanks would be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their design life. None of them should be in service," he said. "And yet, they're holding two-thirds of the nation's high-level nuclear waste."

___

Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-22-Hanford%20Leak/id-59f320443618479a9820357a6e864335

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Sony Xperia Z - Ein erster Eindruck

Sony Xperia Z - Ein erster Eindruck

www.pcmasters.de

Knapp anderthalb Monate ist es schon wieder her, dass Sony auf der CES 2013 in Las Vegas mit dem Xperia Z das neue Flaggschiff der eigenen Handy-Sparte angek?ndigt hat, ab heute ist das gute St?ck auch endlich hierzulande in diversen Shops zu erhalten. Wir sind deshalb spontan gestern im Sony Center...

Source: http://de-de.facebook.com/PCMasters/posts/540874949285773

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Grief besets family of Pistorius' slain girlfriend

Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius , in court Friday Feb. 22, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa, for his bail hearing charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The defense and prosecution both completed their arguments with the magistrate soon to rule if the double-amputee athlete can be freed before trial or if he must stay behind bars pending trial) (AP Photo)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius' uncle, Arnold Pistorius, speaks to journalists at the end of the bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Oscar Pistorius was granted bail in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Friday and will return to court June, 4, 2013 to face a charge of pre-meditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, right, and his sister Aimee, left, are driven to a relatives home in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Pistorius was released on bail and will return to court June, 4, 2013 to face charge a charge of pre-meditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. (AP Photo/Nelius Rademan-FOTO24-Beeld) SOUTH AFRICA OUT NO SALES. NO ARCHIVE, ONLINE OUT MAGAZINES OUT INTERNET OUT TV OUT

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius' sister Aimee Pistorius looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Pistorius was granted bail in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Friday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Mike Steenkamp, the uncle of Reeva Steenkamp, centre, speaks to an unidentified man, holding a photo of Reeva, after her funeral in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Far from the courtroom drama that has gripped South Africa, the family of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend has struggled with its own private deluge of grief, frustration and bewilderment.

The victim's relatives also harbor misgivings about efforts by the Olympian's family to reach out to them with condolences.

Pistorius, meanwhile, spent Saturday at his uncle's home in an affluent suburb of Pretoria, the South African capital, after a judge released him on bail following days of testimony that transfixed South Africa and much of the world. He was charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day, but the athlete says he killed her accidentally, opening fire after mistaking her for an intruder in his home.

"We are extremely thankful that Oscar is now home," his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said in a statement that also acknowledged the law must run its course. "What happened has changed our lives irrevocably."

The Pistorius family took steps to lower its profile on social media after someone hacked into the Twitter account of his older brother, Carl, family spokesman Janine Hills said.

"Carl did not tweet this afternoon, out of respect to Oscar and Reeva," Hills said in a statement. "We are busy cancelling all the social media sites for both Oscar's brother and his sister."

Mike Steenkamp, Reeva's uncle, told The Associated Press that the family of the double-amputee athlete initially did not send condolences or try to contact the bereaved parents, but had since sought to reach out in what he described as a poorly timed way. After Pistorius was released on bail in what amounted to a victory for the defense, Arnold Pistorius said the athlete's family was relieved but also in mourning "with the family" of Reeva Steenkamp.

"Everybody wants to jump up with joy," Mike Steenkamp said, speculating on the mood of Pistorius' family after the judge's decision. "I think it was just done in the wrong context, completely."

A South African newspaper, the Afrikaans-language Beeld, quoted the mother of Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, law school graduate and participant in a television reality show, as saying the family had received a bouquet of flowers and a card from the Pistorius family.

"Yes, but what does it mean? Nothing," June Steenkamp said, according to the Saturday edition of Beeld. She also said Pistorius' family, including sister Aimee, a somber presence on the bench behind the Olympian during his court hearings in the past week, must be "devastated" and had done nothing wrong.

"They are not to blame," June Steenkamp said. According to Beeld, she said she had hoped to plan a wedding for her daughter one day.

In an affidavit, 26-year-old Oscar Pistorius said he was "absolutely mortified" by the death of "my beloved Reeva," and he frequently sobbed in court during the several days during which his bail application was considered. However, prosecutor Gerrie Nel, suggested in a scathing criticism that Pistorius was actually distraught because his vaunted career was now in peril and he was in grave trouble with the law.

"It doesn't matter how much money he has and how good his legal team is, he will have to live with his conscience if he allows his legal team to lie for him," Barry Steenkamp, Reeva's father, told Beeld.

"But if he is telling the truth, then perhaps I can forgive him one day," the father said. "If it didn't happen the way he said it did, he must suffer, and he will suffer ... only he knows."

Barry Steenkamp suffered "heavy trauma" at the loss of his daughter and his remarks to the newspaper partly reflect how he is working through it, said his brother, Mike Steenkamp.

Steenkamp was cremated in a funeral ceremony on Feb. 19 in her family's hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southern coast. Mike Steenkamp delivered a statement about the family's grief to television cameras, at one point breaking down in tears.

The three-story house where Pistorius is staying with his aunt and uncle lies on a hill with a view of Pretoria. It has a large swimming pool and an immaculate garden.

Pistorius was born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect and had his legs amputated at 11 months. He has run on carbon-fiber blades and was originally banned from competing against able-bodied peers because many argued that his blades gave him an unfair advantage. He was later cleared to compete. He is a multiple Paralympic medalist, but he failed to win a medal at the London Olympics, where he ran in the 400 meter race and on South Africa's 4x400 relay team.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-23-Pistorius-Shooting/id-92da7aa20dc045e59a45af859707a5fc

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Friday, February 22, 2013

Adblock Plus gets shins kicked by Google "security measures" - Hexus

Google has made it much more difficult to use the ad-blocking utility Adblock Plus on its latest Android OS and in its desktop Chrome browser. Adblock developers observed recent software changes implemented by Google and made some workarounds utilising automatic proxy server configuration, so that people could still use its ad-blocking utility. Google seems to have reacted to this and made Adblock Plus?s new workarounds on Android much more complicated and manual - in the name of system security. It sounds like this is a high stakes game (advertising revenue) of internet cat and mouse.

Android

The Adblock Plus Android app will no longer work on non-rooted Android 4.1.2 or 4.2.2 devices without going through an eight-stage configuration of a proxy server.

Till Faida, co-founder of the Adblock Plus project told The Register that ?We are not opposed to the fix per se. We just think Google shouldn't deliberately break any functionality when fixing something?. Faida went on to say that Adblock coders have raised the issue on Google code forums and hope that the ?do no evil? company will help ?provide a solution that addresses security concerns and still respects user's choices?.

some of the fiddly manual proxy config stages

Chrome

Google also seems to have taken part in snake-like, body-swerving, goalpost-moving behaviour regarding Adblock Plus running within its Chrome browser. First of all the Adblock Plus extension stopped appearing in searches of web browser extensions/apps available to Chrome users, as the updated search function only looked at ?apps?. Then, when Adblock was made into a Chrome app, it was only available for 12 hours before being removed.

Honesty is the best policy

If Google wants to stop the use of Adblock Plus on its platforms on commercial grounds, as it is a major online advertising industry player, it should just come out and say so. I think most people could understand that action and the business motives behind it. Are all these Adblock shenanigans really just about the security of end users?

Source: http://hexus.net/business/news/internet/51997-adblock-plus-gets-shins-kicked-google-security-measures/

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Video: Detective skeptical of Kevin Jones' alibi

Dateline NBC

'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3032600/vp/50860722#50860722

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Gov't downsizes amid GOP demands for more cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans and other fiscal conservatives keep insisting on more federal austerity and a smaller government. Without much fanfare or acknowledgement, they've already gotten much of both.

Spending by federal, state and local governments on payrolls, equipment, buildings, teachers, emergency workers, defense programs and other core governmental functions has been shrinking steadily since the deep 2007-2009 recession and as the anemic recovery continues.

This recent shrinkage has largely been obscured by an increase in spending on benefit payments to individuals under "entitlement" programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits. Retiring baby boomers are driving much of this increase.

Another round of huge cuts ? known in Washington parlance as the "sequester" ? will hit beginning March 1, potentially meaning layoffs for hundreds of thousands of federal workers unless Congress and President Barack Obama can strike a deficit-reduction deal to avert them.

With the deadline only a week off, Obama and Republicans who control the House are far apart over how to resolve the deadlock. While last-minute budget deals are frequent in Washington, neither side is optimistic of reaching one this time.

Even as the private sector has been slowly adding jobs, governments have been shedding them, holding down overall employment gains and keeping the jobless rate close to 8 percent, compared with normal non-recessionary levels of 5 to 6 percent that have prevailed since the 1950s.

"It's a massive drag on the economy. We lost three-quarter million public-sector jobs in the recovery," said economist Heidi Shierholz of the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute. "We're still losing government jobs, although the pace has slowed. But we haven't turned around yet."

A larger-than-usual decline in federal spending, notably on defense programs, helped push the economy into negative territory in the final three months of 2012. Economic growth, meanwhile, has been inching along at a weak 1-2 percent ? not enough to significantly further drive down the national unemployment rate, which now stands at 7.9 percent.

Although federal spending is projected to decline from 22.8 percent of the gross domestic product recorded last year to 21.5 percent by 2017, it still will exceed the 40-year-average of 21.0 percent, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Spending peaked at 25.2 percent of GDP in 2009.

The budget office also said the economy is roughly 5.5 percent smaller than it would have been had there been no recession.

The Defense Department already has made deep spending cuts, and outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said 800,000 civilian Pentagon employees were notified this week they likely are to be placed on periods of unpaid leave due to lawmakers' failure to act.

The recent downsizing in government is most pronounced at the state and local levels. Most states have constitutional or statutory requirements for balanced budgets.

That means nearly all states are prohibited from running budget deficits, while the federal government is not.

Not only can the federal government run deficits, but it can print money ? through actions by the Federal Reserve ? something states are prohibited from doing.

Those calling for a smaller government mostly don't take notice of the wave of recent cutbacks. Their clarion call remains Ronald Reagan's mantra: Government doesn't solve problems, it is the problem.

"This spending issue is the biggest issue that threatens our future," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says. "When are we going to get serious about our long-term spending problem?"

And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, delivering the GOP response to Obama's State of the Union address, said "a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies."

Soaring recent government deficits are partially a side effect of the worst recession since the 1930s, which took a huge bite out of tax revenues at the same time spending increased on recession-fighting programs like unemployment compensation and stimulus measures under both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.

"The problem going forward is one of demographics and rising health care. It is the baby boom generation retiring," said Alice Rivlin, a White House budget director under President Bill Clinton. "It's the fact that everybody is living longer."

Republicans argue that entitlement programs should be on the cutting board as well as other government programs. Democrats generally have been more protective of them, although the president and many congressional Democrats acknowledge some paring of these popular programs is in order.

The federal budget deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 is estimated to be $845 billion ? the first time it's dropped below $1 trillion in five years. But it's on track to rise again as more and more baby boomers retire and qualify for federal benefits and as interest payments on the national debt keep going up.

The national debt first inched past $1 trillion early in the Reagan administration and has grown in leaps and bounds ever since through both Democratic and Republican presidencies. It now stands at $16.6 trillion and is on a path toward soon becoming unsustainable, both parties agree.

Unchecked, entitlement payments will add roughly $700 billion to the debt over the next four years.

For now, though, "the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," top White House economic adviser Alan Krueger says.

Under the sequester law, roughly $85 billion in federal spending would be slashed in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year and a total of $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years.

While entitlement programs and uniformed military personnel would be exempt, the rest of the government would be hit with indiscriminate across-the-board cuts.

Obama wants government deficits trimmed through a mix of selective spending cuts and new tax revenues, mostly by ending deductions and tax credits frequently claimed by the wealthiest Americans.

Republicans oppose any new taxes, even if for closing loopholes rather than increasing rates.

The looming spending cuts were first scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. But they were postponed to March 1 as part of year-end "fiscal cliff" negotiations that also raised tax rates on affluent Americans. Republicans insist that's enough tax increasing for now.

___

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/govt-downsizes-amid-gop-demands-082533515.html

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Chesapeake Energy to hire new CEO by April 1

Chesapeake Energy Corp. expects to have a new chief executive by the time co-founder Aubrey McClendon leaves on April 1, an executive said during Thursday's earnings call.

McClendon was not part of Thursday's conference call with analysts after leading the company's first 80 such calls.

Jeff Mobley, Chesapeake's senior vice president of investor relations and research, said McClendon will be missed.

?The culture and capabilities of the company Aubrey created and the standards of excellence he championed had been distinctive and inspiring, resulting in a company with extraordinary potential,? Mobley said. ?But his legacy will ultimately be the realization of that potential through the success and value that we all helped deliver after his tenure as CEO concludes.

?With those thoughts in mind and in behalf of nearly 12,000 employees at Chesapeake, we want to sincerely thank Aubrey for his visionary leadership and for his 24 years of tireless service to the company, to shareholders, to employees, and to the industry.?

Mobley said Chesapeake's board expects its ongoing search for a new CEO to be completed before McClendon steps down on April 1.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newsok/home/~3/txY53UgkFD8/3757632

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

HP revenue falls six percent, beats Wall Street view

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co's fiscal first-quarter revenue fell 6 percent to $28.4 billion, but it beat Wall Street expectations in a flat to shrinking personal computing market, sending its shares up over 5 percent.

The world's No. 1 PC maker also gave an outlook that came in higher than Wall Street expected.

Analysts had on average expected HP, which like Dell Inc is struggling to sustain sales growth as smartphones and tablets surge in popularity, to record revenue of $27.8 billion in the December quarter.

The company's stock rose 5 percent, from a close of $17.10 on Nasdaq, in after-market trade.

HP on Thursday estimated fiscal second quarter earnings per share of 80 to 82 cents, higher than the average Wall Street forecast of 77 cents.

HP is struggling to shore up its credibility on Wall Street while battling shrinking margins in an increasingly cut-throat PC market, reduced IT spending, and an internal overhaul that involves thousands of layoffs.

Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who took the helm over a year ago after a failed bid to become governor of California, has plunged HP into a years-long turnaround to recapture some of the Silicon Valley icon's former growth trajectory.

She said the company's efforts at recovery is gaining traction but acknowledged "there's still a lot of work to do to generate the kind of growth we want to see."

Revenue at HP's personal systems division fell 8 percent, while sales in its enterprise group slid 4 percent during the quarter.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Richard Chang)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hp-revenue-falls-6-percent-beats-wall-street-211112539--finance.html

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Discovering the birth of an asteroid trail

Feb. 21, 2013 ? Unlike comets, asteroids are not characterised by exhibiting a trail, but there are now ten exceptions. Spanish researchers have observed one of these rare asteroids from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (Spain) and have discovered that something happened around the 1st July 2011 causing its trail to appear: maybe internal rupture or collision with another asteroid.

Ten asteroids have been located to date that at least at one moment have displayed a trail like that of comets. They are named main-belt comets (MBC) as they have a typical asteroidal orbit but display a trail at the same time. This means that their dust (and possibly gas) emission activity is like comets.

One of these objects, baptised as P/2012 F5 (Gibbs), was discovered in March 2012 from the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona (USA). In May and June of that year, Spanish astrophysicists from the Gran Telescopio Canarias tracked it and have discovered when the trail was born using mathematic calculations.

"Our models indicate that it was caused by an impulsive short-lived event lasting just a few hours around the 1st July, 2011, with an uncertainty of 20 days," as explained by Fernando Moreno, researcher at the Astrophysics Institute of Andalusia (CSIC). In collaboration with other colleagues from the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands and the University of La Laguna, the data have been published in the 'The Astrophysical Journal Letters'.

The telescope images reveal "a fine and elongated dust structure that coincides exactly with the synchrone of that day," says Moreno. For a given observation date, a synchrone is the position in the sky of the particles emitted from these types of objects with zero speed in an instant of time. In this case the synchrone of the 1st July, 2011 is the best adapted to the fine trail.

The width and varying brightness of the head to the end of the trail allowed for the researchers to deduce the physical properties of the particles and proportions of their different sizes.

As for the maximum size and speed values of the liberated particles, the team has calculated that the asteroid should have a radius of between 100 m and 150 m and the dust mass emitted should be about half a million tonnes.

The researchers juggled two possible theories for the origin of the P/2012 F5 trail: "It could have arisen from collision with another asteroid or rather a rotational rupture." The second mechanism consists of material gradually breaking free after partial fragmentation of the asteroid.

In turn, the rapid spinning of the asteroid, "like an accelerating carousel" causes pieces to break off. The rotation speed of small asteroids can increase over time due to the Yarkovsky effect (YORP effect for short). This can induce acceleration due to the thermal differences of the different surface regions of the asteroid, eventually leading to rupture.

Moreno indicates that, from the brightness distribution of the trail, "we have verified that the dependence of the speed of particle ejection on size is very weak, in accordance with what we already obtained for the other asteroid of this group: 596 Scheila, which probably suffered a collision."

MBC activated asteroids

MBCs are main-belt asteroids situated at a distance of between 2 and 3.2 astronomical units, which is the average distance between Earth and the Sun. For some reason they become active and emit dust. For now they have not been found to generate gas but this could be due to the fact that they are weak at the very moment of observation.

Since the first discovery of an MBC in 1996, the 133P/Elst-Pizarro, a total of ten have now been found. The presence of a trail in some has lasted for a relatively long period of a few months, like in the cases of 2006 VW139 and P/2010 R2 (La Sagra). The latter was discovered from an observatory of the same name in Granada. Its activity could have been due to an ice sublimation which could have released the gas, although this has not been detected.

In other cases, however, activity developed during a short period of time, like in the case of 596 Scheila. Its dust cloud dissipated very quickly in a matter of hardly three or four weeks following its detection.

There are also examples of MBCs that have shown recurrent activity, like 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 238P, which have displayed a trail on more than one occasion.

In the case of P/2012 F5, it is still unknown what group it belongs to. More data will be available when it can be observed again in good conditions next year in around July or August 2014.

The last documented MBC to date is the so-called P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS), which Spanish astrophysicist are also analysing. Like what has happened with exoplanets, many more main-belt comets will start appearing in the coming years.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

F. Moreno, J. Licandro, A. Cabrera-Lavers. A SHORT-DURATION EVENT AS THE CAUSE OF DUST EJECTION FROM MAIN-BELT COMET P/2012 F5 (GIBBS). The Astrophysical Journal, 2012; 761 (1): L12 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/761/1/L12

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/cdqMuA3tGkY/130221115217.htm

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Haunting, rare images depict WWI devastation

TORONTO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Canada's Rebecca Marino, a rising star in women's tennis, stepped away from the sport in search of a normal life on Wednesday, weary of battling depression and cyber-bullies. Ranked number 38 in the world two years ago, the 22-year-old admitted she had long suffered from depression and was no longer willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reach the top. "After thinking long and hard, I do not have the passion or enjoyment to drive myself to the level I would like to be at in professional tennis," Marino explained in a conference call. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/haunting-rare-images-depict-wwi-devastation-slideshow/

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New $3 Million Prizes Awarded to 11 in Life Sciences

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Eleven inaugural winners will receive the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, created by four Internet titans as the richest academic prize in the field.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/science/new-3-million-prizes-awarded-to-11-in-life-sciences.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Obama to press GOP on averting sequester

President Barack Obama waves to members of the media as walks across the South Lawn of the White House following his arrival on Marine One helicopter, Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. President Obama was returning from a weekend of golfing in Palm City, Fla. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Facing yet another fiscal deadline, President Barack Obama is urging congressional Republicans to accept more tax revenue in order to avert looming, across-the-board budget cuts due to take effect in less than two weeks.

Obama, fresh off a three-day Florida golfing trip, was to press his case during an event at the White House on Tuesday morning. Emergency responders, a group of workers the White House says could be affected if state and local governments lose federal money as a result of the cuts, were joining him.

The $85 billion in cuts, known as the sequester, will start taking effect on March 1 unless Congress acts. The White House says the sequester could derail an economy still suffering from high unemployment and sluggish growth.

Obama wants to offset the sequester through a combination of targeted spending cuts and increased tax revenue. The White House is backing a proposal unveiled last week by Senate Democrats that is in line with the president's principles.

But that plan was met with an icy reception by Republicans, who oppose raising more tax revenue in order to offset the cuts. GOP leaders say the president got the tax increases he wanted at the beginning of the year when Congress agreed to raise taxes on family income above $450,000 a year.

The White House said Obama on Tuesday would call on congressional Republicans to compromise and accept the Senate Democrats' proposal.

The Democrats propose to generate revenue by plugging some tax loopholes. Those include tax breaks for the oil and natural gas industry and businesses that have sent jobs overseas, and by taxing millionaires at a rate of at least 30 percent.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the Ohio Republican agrees the sequester is a bad way to reduce spending, but put the onus for averting the cuts on Democrats.

"A solution now requires the Senate ? controlled by the president's party ? to finally pass a plan of their own," spokesman Brendan Buck said.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan proposal Tuesday by co-chairs of an influential deficit-reduction commission called for reducing the deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years, with much of the savings coming through health care reform, closing tax loopholes, a stingier adjustment of Social Security's cost of living increases and other measures.

Some Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have advocated plugging loopholes, but as part of a discussion on a tax overhaul, not sequestration.

"Loopholes are necessary for tax reform," Ryan said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." ''If you take them for spending, you're blocking tax reform and you're really not getting the deficit under control."

The sequester was first set to begin taking effect on Jan. 1. But as part of the "fiscal cliff" negotiations, the White House and lawmakers agreed to push it off for two months in order to create space to work on a larger budget deal.

With little progress on that front in recent weeks, Obama is calling for the sequester to be put off again, though it's unclear whether another delay would have any impact on the prospects for a broader budget agreement.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-19-Obama/id-9729379c615f46bb855b253c7eb72549

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Iran protests Berlin film award for banned Jafar Panahi

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has complained to the organizers of the Berlin film festival for giving Iranian director Jafar Panahi an award for an allegorical movie made in defiance of a 20-year state ban.

Panahi shared the best script prize at Berlin on Saturday for "Closed Curtain" with co-director Kamboziya Partovi for a film made in secret, which mirrors aspects of Panahi's life under house arrest in the Islamic Republic.

"We have protested to the Berlin film festival. Its officials should amend their behavior because in cultural and cinematic exchange, this is not correct," said Javad Shamaqdari, the head of Iran's national cinema organization, Iran's student news agency (ISNA) reported on Monday.

The movie follows the story of two people on the run from state security and is considered by critics to be a multi-layered portrayal of how restrictions on the filmmaker's work and movement have brought on depression and even thoughts of suicide.

Iran banned Panahi from making films for 20 years in 2010 and sentenced him to six years in prison on charges of "propaganda against the state" following the country's 2009 disputed presidential election.

While he remains at home under house arrest, Panahi has previously described himself as a victim of injustice and an Amnesty International statement published at the time of his conviction said he may be forced to report to prison at any time.

"Everyone knows that a license is needed to make films in our country and send them abroad but there are a small number who make films and send them out without a license. This is an offense ... but so far the Islamic Republic has been patient with such behavior," Shamaqdari said without mentioning Panahi or the film by name, ISNA reported.

A celebrated filmmaker in the West for his portrayals of issues such as women's rights and support for political opposition, Panahi was not able to attend the Berlin festival.

At a news conference in Berlin last week, Partovi avoided discussing the sensitivities around the film, simply saying that "nothing had happened until now" but that he did not know what the future held.

"Closed Curtain" is the second film Panahi has made in defiance of the ban, after 2011's "This is not a Film". It is unclear whether he will face prosecution for breaking the ban.

"Closed Curtain" is set in an empty villa in Iran, presumably beside the Caspian Sea.

A man, played by Partovi, arrives with his dog, and proceeds to draw the curtains and black out the windows, sealing himself off from the world outside and preventing the authorities - real and imagined - from seeing what is happening.

When the dog accidentally switches on the television, we see footage of stray dogs being rounded up and killed, explaining why he had to be smuggled in inside a bag and kept indoors.

A young man and woman, on the run from the police, burst in and the woman stays, but her existence and that of the man becomes unclear as viewers must decide if they are fictional characters in Panahi's script or actual people.

The layers of reality multiply as Panahi himself arrives, and posters advertising some of his past movies are revealed beneath sheets before being covered up again.

In the allegory of Panahi's life under house arrest and inability to work freely, we see him walking into the sea at one point, a reference to taking his own life.

"He was not constantly thinking about suicide, no, because then he wouldn't have been able to make the film," Partovi told reporters in Berlin last week. "But if I imagine myself unable to work and just sitting at home, then I am sure I would start to think about suicide."

(Reporting By Marcus George, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-protests-berlin-film-award-banned-jafar-panahi-141713190.html

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Giant laser creates an artificial star to clear the sky

Russian meteor traced to Apollo asteroid family

Curiosity's spills add thrills to the Mars life hunts

Multilingual dictionary keeps humans in the loop

Vulcan and Cerberus win popular Pluto moon-naming vote

China takes steps to clean up 'cancer villages'

Happy, snappy tweets gain the most Twitter followers

Android smartphone to control satellite in orbit

The man who's crashing the techno-hype party

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